My Dad

I meant to post this before i left to come up here but i thought i would post it anyway. The surgery was today and it didn’t go too well they were unable to remove the tumor….

I decided with the new year I will attempt to not hold anything back from my blog. So, here goes…Life has been pretty rough recently. My dad has been diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. This means that it has spread to other organs other than his colon. There is a surgery planned for Wednesday morning to remove the major tumor in his colon. I’ve been trying to keep my thoughts positive. I know my dad is strong and will fight through this but I can tell he is scared, I think mostly of the surgery, but him being scared, scares the hell out of me. He is retired military and to say, growing up, he was a hard-ass is an understatment He has always been the “strong solider” to me. It’s extremely painful to see that he has lost so much weight in the past month but he seems to still be in good spirits. He still has that hardened exterior, which makes me smile. If you ask him how he is, for the most part he responds “i’m fine”. Even though i try to keep from having negative thoughts, i can’t help think that i should have spent more time with him. The sunday dinners we used to have when i was in college, i should have stayed longer, i should have stayed longer over the holidays, etc… It’s also made me wonder if he knows how much he means to me and how much who he is has influenced who i am. I’m sure he knows that i love him but have i done enough. It’s made me think about this in regards to my wife. I know she knows I love her but have I really done enough to show her? I need to remind myself that there is still time. I can make sure that I show the people that are most important to me how they mean the world to me.

Christmas gift

Thought I would share one of my Christmas gifts. It’s not the car. I bought that but the Linux fish is. Looks good on my new Acura TL.

New Year Resolution

Simple – Try to increase my online presence.
1 – post more to this site
2 – post more pictures
3 – sign up for facebook (done)
4 – keep up with linkedin
5 – use twitter more
etc… I hope to you see you all around the intertubes in 2010

New pics

Here’s a quick update to say that I have posted pictures of what I have been up to this summer. Check out the summertime section under the gallery. Also, I’m still looking for some more advice in my pc purchasing.

Back from vacation

This post is coming from the wordpress app on my iphone. Cool, huh? I have returned from vacation sunburned but still alive. I will post pictures either tonight or tomorrow. Anyway I wanted to post a quick question. I am looking for some advice. I want to replace my desktop and looking for how I should do this. Replacement can be laptop or desktop. Here are my requirements.
• I will be wanting to play Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, and the old republic mmo when they come out.
• I want to keep my dual monitors if you suggest a laptop then there needs to be a docking station with 2 video outs
• the smaller the case the better since it will need to sit on top of my desk. Bonus points if it’s small form factor

Holy Crap it’s been a while

So it’s been a year since my last post. I didn’t seem to have time to search for a good photo gallery tool for my website and I decided I wouldn’t post until I got the whole gallery situation worked out. In hindsight that was a very bad decision. I mean a year? Come on, that is just crazy. Well the gallery section is done and I actually have a cool way of handling it thanks to a plug-in called Shashin. It creates a gallery based on the albums I have in Google Picasa. So if you have never seen my flickr page or my picasa page. Click on the gallery link up top and give it a look. Last Friday, I finally caved, I purchased myself and iPhone. I had resisted all this time and was doing my best to resist the temptation while being bombarded with news of its release all day, but I guess I saw one too many pictures of people leaving the store with huge grins on their faces, cradling their new shiny purchase in their hands. By the end of the work day on Friday, I had justified the purchase to myself. Email, Calendar, Internet, everything at my fingertips.  So I left work and headed for the apple store in the mall. Never once did it enter my mind that I might not be able to get one because I hadn’t gotten there early, but as soon as I walked by the roped off area designed to hold the overflow from the “real” line, the fear set in. Not 2 hrs prior to this I wasn’t even considering buying an iPhone today but now I was terrified that I would not be able to leave the mall with one in my hands. When I got closer to the store I saw, to my pleasure, there were two lines both with roughly 6 people in each. I felt relief, wonderful relief. I hopped in line and was prepared to wait patiently my turn to be escorted inside the store, when I was approached by an apple store employee asking what my reservation number was. Huh? reservation for the apple store? WTF? or as my wife would say “Seriously? Really?” I was then informed that the line I was standing in was for people with “reservations”. I on the other hand, would have to go see the “nice lady in orange” standing over next to the 15+ people in a maze of ropes.  It still didn’t seem that bad, the line was broken into two parts one by the door with 6 people and my area with 15+. So 20+,  that’s nothing, I was sure I was guaranteed a phone. But I stood there and saw one after another person with a reservation go into the store while my line hadn’t moved at all.  That’s when the fear came back. By the time I was next in line, my hands were clammy, I was nervous and when the person came to the front of the store and “Hi, my name is Shawn” I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs “FUCK YEAH, I’M GETTIN’ AN IPHONE BITCHES!”

Home Improvements

Check this out. I know it wasn’t on the list because I really didn’t think it was going to get done but with Jimmy’s help…volia!
BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

Local Restaurants

When it comes to picking a place to eat, me and my stepdaughter are complete opposites. When asked “Where do you want to eat?” she will undoubtedly choose a restaurant from her pool of four favorites and when presented with a choice that is not one of those four it is almost always met with resistance. Her favorite restaurant is Chile’s, my favorite restaurant is…anything but Chile’s When given the choice I would always prefer to go to a restaurant that I’ve never been to than a restaurant I know has good food. I look at dining out as a sort of tiny adventure, so the greater the unknown the greater the adventure.
On the instances that i join the battle to control the dining decision, I more often than not lose. Yesterday, I found out about this Lebanese restaurant up the street called Byblos, but even though i may be able to convince my wife to try it there would be absolutely no way i could get my stepdaughter there (well aside from putting her in a sack and dragging her there). Hopefully, as she gets older her tastes will broaden and at that point i will never eat at Chile’s again. I’ve had enough Chile’s to last a man 12 lifetimes. For those of you, like me, in the Atlanta area I suggest checking out Chow Down Atlanta. It’s a great foodie blog even if sometimes i think it focuses too much on those posh midtown places you would never find me at. Anyway, It’s not like I’m Chloe’s only reader, right?
As most of you know I love lists so i thought i would do two short ones of local metro-Atlanta restaurants i like and ones i would like to try.

Wasabi

I came across an article today on slashfood detailing the health benefits of wasabi. It’s down-right amazing how much good stuff is packed inside that little green paste. Anyway, I got to thinking as much as I love cooking Asian fusion cuisine, I’ve never played with wasabi. I’ve actually stuck mostly to traditional Korean ingredients cooking bulgogi burgers, spicy kimchi tuna lettuce wraps, kimchi fried rice and the classic kimchi jjigae. Wasabi mashed potatoes sound fucking awesome but i think I’ll have to pass on the almonds; I’m just not a big fan. I think mixing wasabi into a breading for fish would be a pretty kickass idea as well. Wait, what about an entire wasabi themed meal? It’s like “Welcome back to Kitchen Stadium, The secret ingredient for today’s battle is…Wasabi!” I can do this, some sort of wasabi breaded baked tilapia for the entree. Then those wasabi potatoes for a side dish. Hmm…I need some sort of vegetable…maybe a mix vegetable stir-fry, using broccoli, zucchini, snap peas, with soy sauce and wasabi. Then finish it off with some wasabi ice cream. Hell Yeah! I’m going to need to head up to the Super-H Mart this weekend so I can get started on at least those mashed potatoes.

I like lists

Just thought I would share this it’s kinda a combo “To Do” / “Wish” List.

*in no particular order

1. Lose 30lbs – I’m heading towards Jabba the Hut size without having leftover pizza
2. Finish The Color of Magic and start The Light Fantastic (the 2^nd Discworld novel)
3. Beat FFXII – I’m so behind on this it’s kind of pathetic
4. Install the ceiling fan in the guest bedroom – Speaking of behind, it was bought ‘07
5. Till the back yard – This involves renting a tiller If they were in order this one would be last
6. Cut down the small trees in the back yard – Nope, actually this one would be last
7. Organize the Garage – I actually have a day planned for this July 23. You can hold me to it
8. Reinstall Desktop – This is actually happening as we speak. 1 down many to go
9. Search for postcard collection in the attic. Not looking forward to this, Damn it’s hot up there
10. Purchase a new wireless router – set up using WPA instead of WEP and filter by MAC address
11. Purchase a new laptop – I’m thinking Dell I was thinking Lenovo but I think I’m back to Dell
12. Redo cable system under computer desk – Right now it’s like <this> but way shittier
13. Purchase an External HD – need some sort of backup system
14. Try and Locate a charger for Verizon Bluetooth Headset – if Clint will let me keep it
15. Remove The Judds from my ITunes Library – I swear to God that’s my wife’s music not mine
    
16. Buy another spindle of blank CDs and blank DVDs
17. Set up GA Power on Wachovia’s website – Why I did all my other bills and not that one, I have no clue